Cops Injure Teacher During Car Chase

Denver police are hunting this morning for an armed robbery suspect who eluded officers when a chase ended with a car crash that hospitalized a schoolteacher.

A Denver police detective in an unmarked truck was pursuing the suspected member of the "hooded safe bandits" gang through a Lakewood intersection Wednesday afternoon when the police car slammed into the teacher's sedan, flipping it over.

Police said the teacher, identified by neighbors as Edith Mack, was in serious condition at St. Anthony Central Hospital on Wednesday night with a fractured pelvis. The officer was not injured.

Mack has been a tutor in English as a second language for seven years at Jefferson County's Molholm Elementary School, according to the school Web site.

"They were attempting to keep sight of an armed robbery suspect," said John White, spokesman for Denver police.

The manhunt continues for Manuel Santistevan, 26, an alleged member of the notorious gang responsible for more than 20 armed robberies in the Denver area.

The incident began at 3:40 p.m., when members of the Safe Streets Task Force were staking out a home in the 200 block of South Zenobia Street, where Santistevan and an unidentified woman were seen fleeing from the house in a white sedan, prompting officers to pursue them.

"When they were pursing the suspect, they were calling for marked units to assist them," White said.

"During the time they were following or pursuing, there was an accident involving one of our undercover vehicles and a citizen."

The accident happened at the intersection of Ninth Avenue and Gray Street in Lakewood.

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